Oh you can just go to hell Memphis. I’m down to three of my Final Four and six of the Elite Eight, max.

• Help Tom Tango to he can help me help you. Seriously, it takes like, three minutes.
• Further evidence that power pitching wins.
• Remember that bit about the Yanks’ farm system being valued at $97.8M? That’s good for 13th place in the game.
• A 17-year old girl pitched in a game in Japan. She faced only two batters, walking the first and striking out the second. (link has video)
• If you’re in or around the grand metropolis of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Chad Jennings has about a meet-and-greet with the 2009 Scranton Yanks.
• Some more goodness from Jennings: Alan Horne will pitch in a game this weekend, and the Yanks released six minor leaguers, most notably 2007 nice stats guy Braedyn Pruitt. I’ll miss Clint Preisendorfer more.
• Everyone assumes that if Derek Jeter moves to outfield it’ll improve his defense. Well, the move certainly didn’t help Robin Yount, and he was at least six years younger than Jetes when he made the switch.
• A Philadelphia Phillies season preview … in iambic pentameter! (h/t IIATMS)
• After all the talk about how fat CC Sabathia is and how Joba Chamberlain’s weight can be problematic, who would have guessed that Oliver Perez would be the starting pitcher on a New York team battling conditioning issues?

Here’s your open thread for the night. The Yanks are in action against the Reds in an untelevised game tonight, while the Isles and Devils are in action locally. You’ve also got a quartet of college baseketball games going on. Anthing goes, just be nice.

My brackets are in pretty decent shape so far, much better than the last few years. Ironically, I paid even less attention to college basketball this year than I usually do. Go figure.

Anyway, here’s your links:

• Now that they’ve been eliminated, the 2009 WBC is the first time since 1959 that Cuba has not reached the finals of an international tournament. That is a pretty amazing accomplishment. (h/t Neyer)
• Speaking of the WBC, I got my first look at the mythical beast known as Yu Darvish the other night. And you know what? The dude is filthy. RJ Anderson at Fangraphs and Harry Pavlidis at Beyond the Box Score both took a look at his start against Korea, Pitch f/x style.
• Joba’s DUI hearing was pushed back a third time.
• This one’s behind the Insider wall, but KLaw ran down the list of players who currently project as first round picks for the 2009 Draft. Right now there’s only fifteen no-doubt-about it first round talents. Last year Law said there were about twenty true first round players.
• Lots of great interviews on the netweb recently: Jason at IIATMS sat down with author Jeff Pearlman, Rays Index interviewedthe team’s principal owner Stuart Sternberg, Brandon Isleib spoke with Twin’s Director of Baseball Communications Dustin Morse, and David Laurila interviewed Shariz Rehman, the D-Backs Director of Baseball Ops. Awesome stuff all the way around.
• The inaugural RAB Fantasy Baseball League (and the Alternate League) are drafting Sunday night. I’m picking 17th (out of 20 teams), and right now I’m leaning towards Jacoby Ellsbury with my first pick. I hear he’s teh awesome. I’ll post my team early next week for you all to bask in it’s fantasy goodness laugh at.

Here’s your open thread for the night. The Isles, Devils, Knicks and Nets are all in action tonight, plus there’s a whole bunch of college basketball games going on. Today’s an off day for the WBC, the semifinals kick off tomorrow night when Korea takes on Venezuela. USA will play Japan Sunday night, and they’ve pushed Roy Oswalt up for the game Anything goes here, just be cool.

I’m sure plenty of people are curious to see how the Yanks have fared without A-Rod in the lineup over the last few years, so I looked in it. You are forewarned, it’s not pretty:

With A-Rod: 457-312 (.594), 5.81 runs per game

Without A-Rod: 19-22 (.463), 4.46 runs per game

Yikes. On to the think happy thoughts linkage:

• Stephen Strasburg’s season numbers after his latest gem: 20.1 IP, 17 baserunners, 45 K. That’s a strikeout rate of 19.92 batters per 9 IP. That’s insane. Ryan Wagner had a 16.79 K/9 for Houston in his draft year of 2003 (as a reliever), and he’s the only player I can remember having a strikeout rate even remotely close to Strasburg’s. It’s getting to the point where we can start to debate if he’s the best college righty since Mark Prior, which is rarefied air.
• Speaking of strikeouts, how about a team striking out a combined 31 times? Oof.
• Chad Jennings put together a nice handy dandy list of the Yanks’ minor league coaching staffs, including a little background info. Chad also notes that the Scranton Yanks are holding tryouts for a National Anthem singer, if you’re interested.
• Do you think Alan Trammell is a Hall of Famer? If not, you probably will after seeing this.
• I thought this was interesting: turns out having elbow ligament replacement (Tommy John) surgery doesn’t make a pitcher more prone to future injuries. You would think there would be even just a slight increase in the potential for future injuries, but I guess not.
• The rumblings for a worldwide draft are getting louder. This might actually happen … in 2012.
• Now that Dennys Reyes has caught on with the Cards, the 2009 Draft Order is basically set. The Royals would snag the 44th overall pick if/when Mark Grudzielanek signs elsewhere, but otherwise that’s it for compensation free agents. Ben Sheets isn’t expected to sign until after the draft because of his injury, ditto Paul Byrd because of his semi-retirement, so the Brewers and Sawx won’t be seeing any picks for those two. The Yanks are picking 29th, 76th, then 135th (136th if Grudz signs) and every 30 picks thereafter when the draft rolls around on June 9th.
• I think we can all relate to this.
• Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. (h/t BTF)

Anyway, here’s your open thread for the night. CC Sabathia is making his Spring Training debut tonight against the Tigers. Alas, the game is not on television, but you can follow along with the box score here. The only local team in action is the Nets, who are down in Orlando. Anything goes, and since it’s Friday, you don’t have to be nice.

The Yanks dropped a close one to the Twins today after the bullpen couldn’t hold a slim lead. Ian Kennedy gave up a hit and a walk (no runs) while striking out three in two innings of work, and Andrew Brackman made his spring debut in the losing effort.

Brackman was part of the bullpen that couldn’t hold the game. He gave up a home run to Jason Kubel in one inning of work. George Kontos and Wilson De La Rosa gave up the other three runs as the Twins eked out a 5-4 win. The Yanks loaded the bases in the 9th but couldn’t push across the tying run.

Offensively, Brett Gardner went 2-for-2 with a double, two stolen bases and a run scored. Melky Cabrera went 0-for-3 and is hitless in five spring ABs. Gardner has a stranglehold on the center field job or as much of a stranglehold as you can have on a job three games into the exhibition season. Jorge Posada, DHing again, went 2-for-3, but then again we weren’t really concerned about his bat coming back from shoulder surgery. Nick Swisher picked up a pair of hits too.

To the links:

• Dave Cameron has a great take on the plunging newspaper industry.
• More Hardball put together the All Minor League Contract Team. Where’s Andruw? His defense alone makes him more valuable than Corey freaking Patterson. (h/t MLBTR)
• Joe Brescia takes a look at the players who’ve dropped some weight this offseason. Given the economy and how hard it’s been for some players to find jobs, I’m sure plenty of players will be trying to shed extra weight next offseason to impress potential employers.
• The great new site Minor League Notebook keeps tabs on how the game’s top prospects have been doing in camp each day. Here’s yesterday’s recap.
• ESPN has a fancy new MLB Draft Blog., but unfortunately it’s behind the iron curtain of Insider. KLaw and Jason Churchill of Prospect Insider will be providing updates all spring about the best amateurs in the country.
• Speaking of the draft, Stephen Strasburg’s already in midseason form.
• Drunk Jays Fans on their expectations for the team this year.

Here’s your open thread for the night. The only local team in action is the Knicks, who are hosting the Sixers. You know the deal, anything goes, just be nice.

So what do you think of the new site design? Snazzy, huh? Anyway, here’s the links:

• It looks like Jeff Francis is going to miss the year with a shoulder issue, which is a tough break for the recently turned 28 southpaw. Matthew Carruth uses this as an opportunity to remind us all that locking up young players, especially pitchers, to long term deals covering their arbitration years (and then some) doesn’t always work out.
• Orlando Hudson caught on with the Dodgers today, leaving only four Type-A free agents unsigned. The Diamondbacks now have back-to-back first round picks, their regular 16th overall pick and the Dodgers’ 17th overall pick. You can see the updated draft order here.
• Jose Guillen don’t need no stinkin’ surgeon.
• There’s a new site out there call MLB Depth Chart, which (you guessed it) posts depth charts for all thirty clubs. Here’s their Yanks page. (h/t MLBTR)
• RLYW posted a list of the twenty worst offensive seasons by a Yankees’ second baseman. The only recent players to make the list were Enrique Wilson (2004) and Andy Fox (1996), but Robbie Cano’s 2008 season came in at number twenty-one. Was he really that bad last year? Sheesh.
• Nick Swisher is Twitterizing.
• The 2009 college baseball season kicks off today, and someone’s already got a 31 game hit streak going. As always the place to get your college baseball info is The College Baseball Blog., while D1 Baseball is the best spot to get all the day’s box scores in one convenient location. In case you’re still obsessing over him wondering, Gerrit Cole is scheduled to make his first collegiate start with UCLA tomorrow at home against UC Davis.

Here’s your open thread. The Knicks and Nets are both in action tonight, but talk about whatever you want.

TFGIF. On to the links:

• As usual, PeteAbe’s got you covered from camp. He’s got audio from the Yanks’ new ace and the full Spring Training roster, and he even found the time to sit down for an interview with The Big Lead. I’m unemployed and I can’t even find time to drop my laundry off at the laundromat so the people there can wash my clothes for me. Man am I lazy.
• Tim Dierkes ran through all of this year’s Spring Training cliches at RotoAuthority. Unlike these guys, I put on 15-20 pounds this offseason.
• Part of me wishes the Yanks had more young players on their roster so I could put one of these together for RAB. The other part of me realizes how awesome it is to have CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira.
• Dan Turkenkopf at THT took a look at which pitchers allowed the most quality contact against based on some fancy math. He uses AJ Burnett as an example.
• Here’s another list of the worst contracts in baseball, except this list isn’t retarded. (h/t Neyer)
• AZ Snakepit sat down to a chat with Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes; here’s parts one and two. Hopefully one day we’ll get to do something cool like that.
• Maury Brown penned an open letter to Bud Selig.
• I know this is a few weeks old, but I feel ya Bally Star.

As you may or may have noticed, we added a small new feature to the site. Each comment now has a little box just above the reply button; if the button is orange, that means it’s a new comment. If it’s gray, that means you’ve seen it already. It updates after someone leaves a new comment and you hit refresh. Right now, hitting refresh without a new comment on the post doesn’t change anything. If we can solve the caching conflict, that functionality should be restored.

Here’s your open thread for the night. The Devils and Rangers are both in action, and the NBA is off for the All-Star Break. Anything goes, just be nice.

Photo Credit:  Gene Puskar, Associated Press